


find some other soul to save

by Fives (janfives90)



Series: ain't going out like that [8]
Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F, weird west au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24881302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janfives90/pseuds/Fives
Summary: When the governor walks in, Emma is pretty sure her swallow is audible.The dark-haired woman has a serious look on her face, and she looks like no one has ever truly won an argument with her.She looks like, if she’s made up her mind about Emma’s guilt before she walked into the room, there’s nothing Emma could say or do to save herself.
Relationships: Alyssa Greene/Emma Nolan
Series: ain't going out like that [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1500725
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	find some other soul to save

“This will be over soon,” Alyssa murmurs, leaning against the bars of Emma’s cell and holding her hand in between the metal. “The governor will listen to you. She’ll have to.”

“What am I supposed to say? I won’t throw my cousin to the wolves, Lys. I won’t do it.”

“Then don’t. Just tell your story as best you can. Your cousin might have made a rash decision, but he did it for your town, right? Tell his side of things. Tell _your_ side of things. It’s all you can do. You can’t live like this, darling. You know you can’t.”

Emma gives a small, tired nod, then looks away as a faint smirk forms on her lips.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

Alyssa squeezes her hand. “What?”

Emma shrugs. “If you just wanted to tie me up, Greene, all you had to do was ask. I’d’ve been happy to obli-”

“Oh my _God,”_ Alyssa groans, letting go of Emma’s hand and taking a step back from the cell.

“I’d’ve been _happy_ to oblige,” Emma finishes with a laugh.

“You’re such an idiot,” Alyssa grumbles.

Emma leans against the bars, looking at her with a warm smile. “I know. I’m your idiot, though.”

Alyssa sighs and rests her hand against Emma’s cheek. “Yeah. You are.”

“Honey.”

Alyssa looks over her shoulder, where her mother is standing in the doorway. “Mother?”

“The governor has just arrived.”

“I’m going to go talk to her.” Alyssa gives Emma a long look. “Don’t go anyway,” she murmurs.

Emma gestures one hand at the room around them. “Couldn’t if I wanted to.”

Alyssa slips past her mother and out towards the front of the sheriff’s office.

Mrs. Greene pauses, looking everywhere but at Emma.

“I love her,” Emma says quietly. “I don’t know if that was in question for you, but I love her.”

Mrs. Greene takes in a deep breath. “Will that be enough?” She slowly meets Emma’s eyes. “Will that be enough to give her a good life?”

“That depends on whether you can see me as more than these bars. As more than the magic.”

There’s a long moment in which Mrs. Greene just looks at her. Then, quietly, she says, “I think it’s possible.”

Without another word, she turns and walks out of the room.

* * *

“This seems excessive,” Emma says as her hands are cuffed behind her back while she’s still in her cell.

“It’s protocol, kid.” The sheriff checks them. “Are they too tight?”

“No.”

“Good.” He steps out of the cell and locks it behind him. “You’re going to be talking to the _governor._ Okay? I trust the innkeeper’s daughter when she says you’re not a threat, but you’re still a wanted outlaw and a magician. I have to follow the rules.”

“I get it. Can we get this over with now?”

The sheriff nods and knocks once on the door, then sits down on a chair in the corner.

When the governor walks in, Emma is pretty sure her swallow is audible.

The dark-haired woman has a serious look on her face, and she looks like no one has ever truly won an argument with her.

She looks like, if she’s made up her mind about Emma’s guilt before she walked into the room, there’s nothing Emma could say or do to save herself.

“So. This is the girl that the innkeeper’s daughter spent so much time pleading for.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The sheriff leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “She’s been polite enough, and she never harmed anyone while she was here.”

The governor starts slowly pacing in front of the cell. “Tell me, girl. Most train robbers don’t stop at one. How many others have you done?”

“None, ma’am,” Emma says, her throat suddenly dry.

“If you lie to me, girl, we won’t get off to a very good start.”

“I-I’m not lying, ma’am. That robbery was only done because there… Well, there wasn’t much other choice.”

The governor pauses in her pacing and raises an eyebrow at her. “You think theft is the best solution to problems?”

“Well, no, ma’am, but… Madison, the town I’m from, we don’t have anything. People were dying in the streets of things that should be preventable. Disease, starvation, cold. And every week we had to watch a train full of the supplies that could help us stop to fill up on coal before it took those supplies to the fort up the way. We asked for help. We begged for it. We never got it.” Emma swallows and bows her head. “Ma’am, there comes a point where a person just can’t beg anymore.”

The silence after she stops speaking is so long that she doesn’t know what to make of it. The governor finally turns her head to the sheriff and quietly says, “Could you give us the room for a moment?”

“Ma’am?”

“Just for a minute or so, sheriff. I’ll be fine here.”

The sheriff nods and steps out, the door closed behind him.

The governor sets her hands on the bars of the cell and leans forward. “You didn’t do it.”

Emma’s blood runs cold. “What?”

“You keep dancing around saying _I._ The reasons you’re giving are completely true, but it wasn’t you, was it? It was somebody you care about enough to take the blame for.”

Emma takes a step back. “N-No, I… _I_ did it. I did. I did it.”

“I don’t believe you,” the governor says calmly.

 _“Please._ I did it.” Emma feels the panic sink in, feels it shake through her body, and she tries to force calm where she knows she can’t. “Please. If you won’t give me a pardon because I won’t say otherwise, then fine. I don’t give a shit. _I did it.”_

“Whoever robbed that train was broken and scared, and it was the wrong thing to do, but I can understand what would lead someone to that level of desperation. I’m not-”

_“I did it, goddamn you!”_

The fear explodes through her, electrical energy she can’t contain, and she feels fire explode in her hands, hot enough to melt the cuffs off of her wrists and knock her forward onto the ground.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Emma brings her hands in front of her and tries to calm her breathing, staring at the flames. She grits her teeth and slowly brings herself back under control, the fire shrinking until it flickers out. She lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as she collapses on the floor, panting. “I didn’t mean that,” she says as the door bursts open and the sheriff rushes in. “I swear I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay,” the governor says, holding up a hand to the sheriff. “We’re okay.” She crouches down and lowers her voice. “I’ve met magicians before. I understand how they work. I really upset you, didn’t I?”

“I guess so.”

“I’m sorry.” The governor pauses. “You know, a friend of mine is a magician. He told me about a kid who’s an associate of his, who was looking for bullets powerful enough to kill a magician and not be able to be counteracted by potions. He said that he told this kid how to get them, but also that her father was a memory best forgotten, not pursued.”

Emma sits up, her back to the governor as she stares at the wall.

“I’m going to pardon you. And I’m going to do you one better: I’m going to expunge the crime completely. If you have any accomplices, nobody will go looking for them. The crime itself is going to be forgiven entirely. I’ll also be looking into getting support to Madison, so that nothing like this ever has to happen again.” She leans in closer to Emma, her voice lowering further. “But I want you to ask yourself something. The innkeeper's girl went through a lot to keep you from going to prison. Whatever your father did that makes you want to kill him, is it worth ruining all the work she did to save you?”

Emma doesn’t answer, and the governor doesn’t wait for one. She stands and turns to the sheriff. “You can let her go. I’ll head back to my office and submit the official paperwork now. Make sure she understands that she should be cautious for a little while, to give time for the pardon notices to arrive in all towns.”

The sheriff nods. “I will, ma’am.”

She feels the governor look back at her one last time. “Good luck.”

* * *

Alyssa paces in her room, nervously playing with her hands. She knows that it won’t be a simple and easy conversation, but she still wishes that the conversation with the governor would just end already.

There’s a small knock on the door, and she says, “Come in.” without even looking at it.

When it opens and closes, it finally gets her attention.

“Emma,” Alyssa whispers. She runs across the room and jumps on her, her legs wrapping around Emma’s waist. “Oh, God. Please tell me this means what I think it means.”

“She gave me a pardon.”

“Thank hell.” Alyssa cups Emma’s face in her hands and kisses her. She pulls back with a frown when Emma doesn’t kiss her back. “Hey. What’s wrong? You don’t seem nearly as happy about this as I am.”

“I am happy,” Emma says quietly. She sets Alyssa down, then walks over to the window, leaning on the sill and looking out at the mountains in the distance. “I-I just… She read me like a book, Lys. She knew that I didn’t do it. She pardoned the crime, my cousin won’t get in trouble, but… She also knew that I…” She bows her head.

“Emma, what’s going on?”

“I haven’t been very honest with you, and I’m sorry about that,” Emma whispers.

“Honest about what?”

Emma sighs. “I came here in the first place to get bullets, Alyssa. Special bullets. Ones that can kill a magician regardless of whether they have access to potions.”

Alyssa swallows. “Why?”

“My… I told you that I didn’t know if one of my parents had magic. I lied. My father, hypocrite that he is, is just like me. When I was a kid, I couldn’t control it. How the fuck was I supposed to control it? But oh, man, it pissed him off. He didn’t want anybody to find out what he was, so he couldn’t afford to have anybody find out what I was. He tried everything he could to make me ‘learn’ the control he expected. I won’t go into the specifics. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to know.”

“Emma,” Alyssa whispers, stepping forward and setting her hand on Emma’s shoulder.

“I… When I told you that a need for vengeance can infect you, I was speaking from experience. I got those bullets for my father. I wanted to put all of them into his chest.”

Alyssa’s hand slips off of Emma’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Emma says, sounding resigned. “That’s what I figured.” She straightens and heads for the door, avoiding Alyssa’s eyes.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Alyssa asks, turning to face her.

Emma pauses, giving her a confused look. “I-I thought…”

“You said want _ed._ Past tense. What’s changed?”

“Well, I… I don’t know. The more I was with you the more I wanted to let it go. I don’t need to see him again. He can’t hurt me now. The only way he wins is if I ruin my life trying to get back at him.”

“You’re right. So are you going to go after him?”

Emma shakes her head.

“Okay.” Alyssa walks up to her and sets her hands on Emma’s shoulders. “Then why would I want you to leave?”

“You… Alyssa, I’m not-”

“Not what? Not what, Emma? You’re not an outlaw, you’re not a killer, maybe you’re a little bit not honest, but who gives a fuck about what you’re not? What _are_ you?”

“I-I…” Emma shrugs and gives a small shake of her head. “I’m a magician. I guess I’m a cowboy on a good day.” Her voice lowers. “I’m someone who loves you more than I can say.”

Alyssa gives a small laugh. “That’s a good answer.” She reaches behind Emma and locks the bedroom door. “That’s a very good answer.”

Emma glances at the door with a frown. “Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Alyssa grabs Emma by her suspenders and starts back up towards her bed, pulling Emma along with her. “You don’t have anything to worry about at all, Emma Nolan.”

Emma swallows hard and takes her hat off, tossing it in the vague direction of a chair on the other side of Alyssa’s room. “If you say so, I believe it.”

Alyssa switches their positions so that she can push Emma onto the bed. She grins as she reaches for the top button of her shirt. “Oh. I say so.”


End file.
